I do my best to manage it. I meditate twice daily. I ground myself. I sit in awareness and go gently when I need to.

But it’s never enough…

All the things I feel.

All the things I know.

All the things I see.

All the things I feel you hiding.

All the pain I feel inside you.

All the things of yours that I feel in me as I connect with you, hug you, work with you. Recent things, old things, things from childhood. Things sometimes from before even that.

All the injustices and terrible things that I see in the world or in some of my work where I must live with that knowledge, and the fact that I can’t change it.

All the times I can’t keep someone safe.

All the times my dreams become a continuation of the truth and suffering of others so that I might take some of that burden from you, or so that I can share that information with those who are empowered to act.

All the weight of all the things and all the feels and all that raw life.

Sometimes I find myself moving more and more slowly. Getting heavier and heavier in my body and my spirit. It comes upon me and I know that I can only hold it back for so long.

It always ends in tears.

But, after I have cried I feel better. Then I will take a walk, and then a swim in the ocean or a long shower.

Things go back to manageable again. The weight is lifted from me.

I have learned that it is okay to cry. In fact, sometimes it’s the only thing that truly helps.

How about you? What do you do to manage the weight of the world?

I am refreshed this morning, and sending so much love to you as I sit in meditation,

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”
~ Mother Teresa

Christmas is such a crazy time – as much as it can be filled with fun and family and wonder, it can be equally a time of stress, loneliness, hardship, emotional buffeting and misery.

That makes it a perfect exercise for practicing kindness.

This Christmas why not choose to see the day, or the season, as a meditation on kindness. You’ll find that not only will this have positive benefits for you and your own state of mind, the benefits of this practice will also flow out to the world around you.

How to Begin

Start by making a decision to be kind to yourself. Accept that you may have feelings of anxiety, sadness, frustration, anger or overwhelm, that you may have your buttons pushed by the people around you – especially family. Create the intention that just for these few hours you will treat yourself with kindness and compassion – that you will allow the unwanted feelings and emotions to wash over you like a momentary cloud passing through a sunny sky, rather than letting them take root and grow. Remind yourself often to come back into your heart, and live from a place of love.

Image from www.weheartit.com

How to Flow Kindness to Others

As you meet people through out the day, remember that they may be also experiencing emotions of stress, loneliness, sorrow, grief, worry, overwhelm, anxiety or despair. Smile from your heart – let kindness build a bridge of understanding between you…

Sometimes you’ll end up in social situations where people’s moods or behaviours may affect your own positive emotional state. That’s okay. Begin by sitting in awareness of how the troubles within the other person’s mind may make them act in ways that reveal their inner turmoil and isolation. Instead of being triggered into negative emotions or behaviours yourself, have compassion for their struggle or attitude. Let it wash over you like a cloud passing overhead on a sunny day. Disconnect from your need to engage in their drama. Smile, offer words and acts of kindness, or quietly remove yourself from the situation and maintain your own emotional calm and balance.

And if you’re game, I have a Christmas Kindness Challenge for you:

The Art of Bliss Bombing

This is a gorgeous activity, and one of my favourites. Take yourself to a public place, like a mall, coffee shop, or a bench in a park near where people are walking by. (If you are up to it, do this at the family Christmas gathering!) Sit somewhere unobtrusive. When someone walks past, shoot a radiant shower of golden sparks from your heart to theirs and silently bless them with love. You can even send joy and love from your heart to trees, animals, plants, bus-loads of commuters and overhead planes. You might want to say to yourself, “I bless you with love. Know joy today.” If anyone catches your eye, just smile.

Feel your open heart begin to tingle with energy and joy. In that place of energetic connection look around you at the world and you will see that it IS brighter and more beautiful because of YOU.

Today you have acted as an Earth Angel. Your Lightwork has helped contribute to our energetic abundance.

It’s okay to let your face crack open from smiling! Thank the Universe for this amazing experience we call life. Expect an outpouring of feel-good emotion. ♥ Don’t be at all surprised at how the Universe will mirror your love and energetic abundance back to you as you become more and more magnetic to the flow of good and grace.

“The wise man in the storm prays to God, not for safety from danger, but deliverance from fear” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

What does it mean to be grounded? If you think of a strong old tree, tap root reaching deep into the earth like an anchor, other roots reaching out under the ground like strange subterranean branches, then you’ll begin to understand what I mean.

With such a deep root system, big storms can blow and the tree will weather the worst of gales, hanging on soundly because of the strength of those roots, and their wide grasp of the world’s foundations.

For a person to be grounded we need to have that same deep connection, that same energetic stability that holds us firm and safe, no matter what is going on around us. We need to earth ourselves.

When we are well grounded we naturally make good decisions for ourselves, and gravitate towards healthy relationships and situations that support our highest good. When we are grounded we are emotionally stable and mentally strong. We come from a place of balance, and we have great endurance even in the most difficult of situations.

Being grounded is essential when life becomes difficult. It is a vastly under-rated coping mechanism, especially in the face of uncertainty.

How do you know if you’re not well grounded? You may feel spacey, vague, depleted or drained. You may over-react to the smallest of things, or not bat an eyelid at something monumental. Unable to make decisions or to trust your own judgement. You could have a sense of perpetual panic or overwhelm, or feel totally disconnected from life. You may even feel unsafe, distressed or upset, without a clear reason why.

Here are some simple ways to create that strong sense of anchoring in our lives, so that we live from a place of balance, connection and security:

1. Choose foods that have a grounding effect on the body.

Foods that have a grounding effect are things that nurture and calm us.

Avoid stimulants such as sugars, caffeine and refined/processed foods. Also avoid cold and raw foods.

Epsom Salts Baths are a wonderful way to de-stress, unwind, top your body up with magnesium, and cleanse your auric field. Highly recommended when you are around toxic people or situations.

3. Get back into your Body

No-one can be grounded when they live in their head! Pull back from the computer or TV. Organise a massage, go for a walk, swim, run, climb, ride, dance, stretch, play, get moving. Physical exercise and activities help burn off stress and re-balance your body chemistry.

4. Spend time in Nature

They call it ‘grounding’ for a reason. Nature helps defuse the tension within us, and relaxes our minds and bodies. You don’t even need to be active. Relax on a park bench in the sunshine on a winter’s day, dig in the garden, wander along the shoreline, fly a kite…

If you can, take your shoes off and stand with your bare feet on the earth. Walk around for a bit if that is possible. This allows you to discharge built up electromagnetic energy, and re-orient your body’s inner compass. If you suffer from feeling ‘spacey’, exhausted, drained or disconnected, bare-footed reconnection to the Earth will do you wonders! You could also sit on the grass, or rest with your back against a tree.

5. Breathe

That’s right! Sit in silence, be still and just focus on your breath, being aware of your breathe entering and leaving your body. Breathing in. Relaxing. Breathing out. Relaxing a little more. You can do this to calm yourself down at any time during the day, but giving yourself the gift of five or ten minutes of stillness and mindful breathing is a powerfully grounding and energetically restorative act.

6. Meditate

Meditation calms the mind, soothes the spirit and relaxes the body. You’ll find plenty of simple guided meditations and meditation techniques here on my blog (just use the search box at the top right hand corner of this page).

I’ve also recorded a simple guided meditation specifically for helping you to ground into the earth. All you have to do is close your eyes, and follow my voice. Set aside fifteen minutes to relax, ground and heal. This is a very useful and powerful meditation, and I hope you enjoy it! Click on the link or button below to listen: